From the spring of 2028, Suica Mobile app users will be able to simply walk through special ticket gates at 40 select East Japan Railway (JR East) stations without having to tap their devices on receivers.
The special gates will receive information from the Suica app wirelessly and activate once the passenger gets closer. The company says the system has a response time of 0.2 seconds, which is comparable to that of current tap-and-go receivers, so there will be no additional wait needed.
“Passengers whose hands are full with large items, or are pushing a stroller, or passengers using wheelchairs can just pass through the gates without taking out their Suica cards every time, enabling a seamless travel experience,” JR East President Yoichi Kise said in a news conference Tuesday.
The new walk-through gates will work only with the Suica Mobile app, and not IC rechargeable metro cards or physical tickets. Those currently using the Suica app will be able to use the new gates without taking any extra steps. They will still have the option to tap their devices at the gates.
Instead of near-field communication, which limits wireless communication to distances of just a couple of centimeters, the new gates use ultrawideband technology with a much longer range, which allows passengers to keep their phones in their bags or pockets as they pass through.
The 40 JR East stations that will get the new gates in 2028 include all stations on the Yamanote Line, the JR stations serving Narita Airport, and Hamamatsucho Station and all Haneda Airport stations on the Tokyo Monorail.
Earlier trial gates will also be installed at 14 stations in Tokyo, including Shibuya, Shinjuku and Tokyo stations, which will be tested by 400 select JR commuter passholders from April next year through February 2028.
JR East hopes to install the walk-through gates at 565 of its stations that currently have automatic ticket gates — including shinkansen stations — by the end of fiscal 2031, which runs through March 2032. At stations in more rural areas without such gates, the railway operator hopes to implement a smartphone-activated walk-through entry and exit system that uses GPS-related technology by the mid-2030s.
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